The Truth: Its Safe to Trust Your Version

Not a single human on this earth is the arbiter of truth.

Although powerful and compelling leaders of religion and conspiracy theories claim to have the truth about reality, where we came from, where we're going (or not going), and all other big questions, no one on this earth knows the truth with complete certainty, but many believe in a truth. Most fail to recognize the distinction between knowing something and having a belief. This is partly because the ego likes to be "right" and partly because it is threatening for the ego to accept that it does not know where it came from, nor what will happen when it dies. As a result, accepting one's religious or spiritual beliefs as the Truth, as knowledge, is a comforting haven.

At a Zen Center I used to attend, I had a discussion with a monk about areas of Buddhism I wasn't grasping. At the end of the conversation he told me that no one will ever be able to simply "tell me the truth" or hand it over to me in the form of scripture, a speech, or a book, that it will have to come from within me.

Interestingly, I stumbled upon a Bible verse with a similar sentiment. Luke 17:20, 21 Jesus replied "The Kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say 'Here it is,' or 'There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you."

My mother once told me that too many people look for happiness from some external sources, be it a person or thing, and that happiness does not come from the outside and go in, instead it comes from within and radiates outward. 

For peace, answers, or truth we should take the journey inward instead of relying people and things outside of ourselves. 

A Warm Anecdote

I once had a discussion with my family concerning the fate of non-believers, like myself. I tried to let them understand that it would be cruel and illogical for a supernatural intelligence to punish people with eternal anguish because of their beliefs, and that religious belief has no place in determining the fate of one's afterlife. That was my own ego at work, and so of course I failed. It was an emotional debate full of much frustration, much pain, and many tears. Later I prayed, to whatever intelligent mind that might be out there listening, to please give my mother, my best friend, a sign that we can both be in the same peaceful place together when we die.

About a month later she came to me one morning to tell me about a dream she described many times, as unusually vivid. The both of us were on a perilous journey down some steep stairs, but we both knew that at the end we would be in a safe place. At the end of the stairs was a bright and beautiful scenery and my deceased grandmother was reaching out for both of us to join her. I told her what I prayed for weeks ago and we smiled and embraced.

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